Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion: A Novel

"With her second novel, Bushra Rehman returns to the time, setting and protagonist of her first: 1980s Corona, Queens, in New York City, and Razia Mirza, a Pakistani American girl. As before, this narrative is structured as fragmentary vignettes. Razia’s growing pains with her cultural heritage, Muslim faith, parental pressures, queer sexuality, and more lead to self-discoveries that help her reshape complex family and friendship ties. These pages are filled with plenty of 1980s Pakistani and American markers – music, movies, books, clothing – to evoke a singular worldview of the Pakistani immigrant community of that time and place."